#actually the henry percy casting was not bad but how did the man not have a single line?

[fideidefenswhore]

occasionaly i like to treat tudor castings like a pick and mix when i'm making edits, and while tobg was an overall dismal example, they really slayed with kristin scott thomas, natalie portman, and david morrissey. 

[dragons-and-magic]

MORE QUESTION TIME! lol😅

Does Whiff wear glasses like humans or just near sighted without wearing one?

Who’s the fastest flying dragon?

Got anything to share about Nia?

What’s the dynamic between James and Percy?

How long can dragons live?

What’s Gordon’s biggest fear?

How did Henry overcome his illness or did he ever overcome it?

Are all eggs from each types of dragons unique or same colour and shape?

Does Thomas ever travel around the ‘world?’ lol

And lastly, are there any unicorns in this AU?

YAY! Awesome!!!🤩🤩🤩 More Lore Dumping! Here we go!

1: Does Whiff wear glasses like humans or just near sighted without wearing one?: He still wears glasses actually! Here's a very very rough concept for him.

Sorry for the super bright green line art. Lol. Whiff a Swamp Drake! A wingless dragon species, that loves the cool murky swamp waters. He does smell pretty funky because he's in the swamp all the time.🤣

2: Who’s the fastest flying dragon?: Oof. That's a tough one. Out of the main cast, I would say Gordon. But, outside the group, I'd say there's quite a few dragons that could rival his speed. Like The Flying Scotsman.

3: Got anything to share about Nia?

OH MY GOSH Yes yes yes I do!!! Here she is! A beautiful African Painted Wyvern! One of the few wyvern species that's primarily a quadruped!

I've been wanting to share about her for SO long! She lives in the African wilderness, with her clan! Well, she used to. Unfortunately, there's not many of her kind left. Just like any other dragon species, human interference was slowly destroying her kind. Especially with the threat of poaching. And eventually, she was alone. But not for long! She eventually end's up joining Thomas's clan, and moving to Sodor!

Also, I actually have a little something for her and James planned. I always found it interesting that they were implied to be close in BWBA. (Wild, right?🤣) So, I might be doing a little something with that... ;)

4: What’s the dynamic between James and Percy?: I would say that in the first few stories, they definitely pick on each other. Percy is a cheeky, outspoken, and very confident young dragon. And James is well... ✨James.✨ Lol. So their personalities do clash a bit at first. But eventually, they became close. Especially after Tale Of The Brave. Percy is like James and Thomas's baby brother and they will both protect him at all costs.

5: How long can dragons live?: Hmmm. That's a good question. Looking at the original series, and how long the engines can live, I'd say that they can live way past 100, as long as they have a safe place to live. Some can even be thousands of years old! Like Hiro!

6: What’s Gordon’s biggest fear?: Being alone. Definitely. He might not be able to express himself properly. But the man lost almost his entire family/species. If he lost his new one, I think he would just break. :(

7: How did Henry overcome his illness or did he ever overcome it?: Okay! So this is an interesting one! He hasn't actually gotten rid of it. He just learned how to work with it. One being his back left leg, which is uh... Gone?😅 A very bad accident happened...😬 ANYWAYS, he has a prosthetic that he makes with his plant powers out of wood, so he can get around. (Henry's New Shape baby!😆😂) It's made of living material, and connected to the Earth. So it's like he never lost anything! His other thing is he has arthritis. I felt this fit well, because some older animals get this and it just seemed to work best out of all the options. He did learn a few ways of reliving the pain though. Being in water helps. He can relax his joints while cooling off. And some herbal remedies help too. I felt like portraying him as working with his conditions, rather than it just going away, was a bit more realistic. He's not an engine, so they can't just replace a few parts and everything is back to normal. Since he's a flesh and blood creature, things would be a lot different. He's most likely still going to feel the effects, even after the fact.

8: Are all eggs from each types of dragons unique or same colour and shape?: They're unique! Just like real life eggs! So many colors, shapes, and sizes! Here's a few examples I came up with! I numbered them too!

Storm Titan Egg. (Gordon's Species!)

Awdry's Blue Tarragon. (Thomas's species! Fun fact! Tarragon isn't just a name for a herb! It's latin name means "Little Dragon"!)

Opal Wing Wyvern. (This species is kinda related to James through his Wyvern side.)

9: Does Thomas ever travel around the ‘world?: Definitely! I haven't gotten that far in the story yet. But he definitely does a little bit of globe trotting. So do some of the other characters!

10: And lastly, are there any unicorns in this AU?: Yep! I'm not sure what characters they would be though. Or what their place is in the story yet. So, we'll see what happens with them! I might make a few characters like Annie, Clarabel, and Flora unicorns.

And that's all I got for now! Thanks for the questions! I had a blast working on this one!😁🫶

[gayregis]

Hi good morning can we talk about twn ciri for a sec? There is something about the way she’s portrayed by the actress that just drives me CRAZY and I don’t know quite how to put my finger on it. I think she’s just so reserved and serious and haughty, whereas in the books she’s really playful and lively and exaggerated and just?? Has emotions?? And also I was spoiled by Peter Kenny’s fantastic accent for ciri and can’t think of her any other way. ANYWAY WHAT R UR THOUGHTS CUZ IM SURE THEY’RE GOOD

ohohoh yes. just as a prefacee and for context, freya allan (ciri’s actress) is 18 years old, and i am 19 years old, so to say i didn’t like her acting in twn isn’t me bullying or being harsh on a minor. in addition, i also don’t think her acting was bad. i think her acting was great, but it was just out of character for ciri, at least the ciri we know from the books... i do not think the directors treated ciri with enough weight as she needed to have in the narrative. like with yennefer, they gave her way more screen time and much less significance in the overall story, because the moments that they gave them to be on screen were just pure filler with no effect on the character development, relationship development, setting, themes... the audience never learned anything useful when they were on screen, besides lore about aretuza and cintra that would immediately escape their minds after the episode was done.

i know for a fact that this “out of character” acting for ciri (her being “so reserved and serious and haughty”) was a result of the directors and people running the show, and NOT freya herself as an actress. like with joey batey and anya chalotra i think, they got the short stick in this deal. they’re actors, so their profession is to act, but they don’t always get to decide HOW they’re supposed to act and portray these beloved characters. that’s what the director is for, right? to direct how scenes play out, to make sure the characters are in-character. and the writers are the ones that write the actors’ lines and the scenes they exist in, so “then it’s just like any other place,” or “who’s yennefer,” and other ridiculous garbage throwaway lines were the writers’ fault and not the actors. i just think it’s important to establish that even though yes, freya is an older teenager/young adult, she’s not responsible for a lot of decisions involving ciri and the character. plus since she is 18 and just got done being 17, i feel like this is the first time she’s actually been able to legally make her own decisions. 

plus in this topic, because i’ve never mentioned it anywhere before, i’d like to bring light to how it’s super shady of netflix to decide to hire an actress for ciri who is BARELY an adult actor, because child actors (as opposed to adult ones) are restricted by many different laws concerning how many hours they can work, etc. the fact that freya is 18 means that they can give her more work and disregard any regulations that may have applied to a child actor, and i think i literally read this from lauren hissrich in an interview, that “older actors are easier to work with than child actors” or something like this, that it’s difficult to shoot with child actors due to the immense restrictions. so although they phrased the casting choice for freya allan more in the sense of “well, we were GOING to cast someone younger, but freya was just so fantastic in auditions that we NEEDED her in this production” is suspicious to me, i think they did it so they wouldn’t have to deal with the headache of laws surrounding child actors (note that i do NOT doubt that freya is a great actress, i liked her acting, i mean look at the scenes she is in! she is actually acting, unlike henry cavill).

speaking of henry cavill, anyone want to mention his 19 year old girlfriend or his “opinions” on the #MeToo movement? no? my more conspiratorial theory is that they might have just wanted to get a barely legal actress for ciri because if cavill were to “do anything”... ahem... it would be less complicated for all of the legality than if he “did anything” to a child. i’m not calling cavill a r*pist but he has made his views on women explicitly clear, and a LOT falls under the umbrella of sexual assault and harassment. innappropriate comments, etc... i don’t trust him to respect women just as much as i don’t trust him to act.

that was a big preface that pretty much went nowhere, apologies... but i think it’s significant to look at the context around the actor or actress when they’re likely being a tad exploited on set. but yes, ciri does come off as super out of character to me in the majority of scenes she is in. it’s because her character was set up to be a white feminist fantasy of being declared innocent from the sins of her family because she feels bad about it, with her “being so privileged and then she finds out her grandmamma committed mass genocide and she has to realize that her royal ways!” instead of anything related to what we see in the books, of a vulnerable child losing that childhood and trying to cling to some sense of normalcy and family. they set her up as “a princess” and not “a child.” 

in the books, she’s just a child, and then geralt learns she’s a princess and teases her that she doesn’t look much like one, being lost in a forest with a snotty nose... she’s not introduced in a royal court surrounded by noble guests. i doubt that books ciri spent all of her time in court, either... according to the lore, she wouldn’t even be able to sit down and she would have to stand in calanthe’s presence (season of storms, the princes must stand in the royal court alongside their father while coral gets to sit because she is a sorceress... of course, this is cidaris and not cintra, but it still stands). she is a princess, but she has difficulty acting like one... it’s something i’d rather erase from my mind because it’s one of those “problematic points of canon that only exist because they live in a medieval society,” but it’s made clear that calanthe gave ciri the belt for misbehaving, multiple times. ciri is obviously interested in more childlike pursuits and acts outside of her station a lot. after all, she is the reason that their entourage got pulled into brokilon in the sword of destiny, because ciri fucking ran away since she didn’t want to be brought to and married off to prince kirsten of verden.

again on ciri’s age, she was 8 or 9 when we first meet her in the books, and 14 when we meet her in the netflix series. that’s a vast amount of difference in age, not only by years, but by development and experience. an 8 year old is a 3rd grader, a 14 year old is a high school freshman. i think that makes a lot of difference in not only how much agency a character is treated with, but how an audience views them. i mean, 14 is a good age for a YA novel protagonist - think harry potter or percy jackson. ciri in the netflix adaptation was set up more as someone relatable (to those younger watching) as she’s like the hero of her own story! she escapes from her evil evil evil pursuers and has this great power she doesn’t yet understand! whereas books ciri is meant more for an audience to feel like geralt toward - protective, parental, you find a child in the middle of the woods, and you’re thinking, “what’s with this... sassy lost child?”

sapkowski is also the master of a good character reveal. i think ciri, cahir, regis, even characters like vilgefortz, have these GREAT reveals as to who they were all along! surprise, surprise, there is no black knight of cintra, it’s just a young man paralyzed with fear and pain! surprise, surprise, the guy that knew a lot about vampires and lived near a cemetery and dresses in all black is a vampire (ok, this reveal is weaker... but you’ve got to admit, the actual reveal scene... alright). 

ciri had a GREAT character reveal in the books. since we see everything from geralt’s perspective, she’s just some child, she’s just some brat geralt finds in the wilderness, he doesn’t have ANY reason to feel any sort of way to her, and he practically adopts her and she feels safe with him. he recognizes her vulnerability as a child and does anything to protect her and guide her. this is what is meant by “something more,” their relationship from the beginning was something more than strictly destiny. destiny may have led them together, but it did not make them become family, they did that themselves. and later when geralt learns that ciri is the princess of cintra, the child surprise promised to him, does he even consider destiny as part of the equation. and this is actually what drives them apart, because geralt believes that he will and refuses to ruin her life by introducing her to the blade, and thus, death. because it’s not incredibly special that ciri is a child surprise, i wouldn’t say it’s horribly common, but it’s not like she’s the only one. and she’s definitely not the only child to be taken/taken in and raised by witchers. and geralt knows what being raised as a witcher is like, and he refuses to do that to her, because he actually loves this child as his daughter. and this is where the conflict stems from, because geralt spit in destiny’s face and said, fuck you, i’m not going to hurt this child. and destiny said, i’m going to hurt her anyways.

in the netflix series? the first time we see ciri... is in cintra! the surprise is RUINED!! child surprise, more like child already-revealed. the audience has no reason to watch anymore, because we already know who she is and what happens to her. they literally kill calanthe and eist off in the first episode, and then expect the audience to CARE about them during episode 4 when they adapted a question of price. in the books, dandelion telling geralt the accounts of the massacre of cintra was a heavy scene, it was a tragic scene, and you knew somehow that it was geralt’s fault because of how he had refuted destiny, you had the lore on your side if you had been reading the stories beforehand, you understood why this was happening and what has happened to ciri.

also side note, i sincerely think the massacre of cintra is better coming from geralt’s best friend, someone he’s known for years and trusts immensely, also a poet so his account is horrifyingly immaculate and it really hits that mark of chilling, rather than geralt just... idk being there? i didn’t watch this far but he showed up to cintra and calanthe threw him in jail? this makes no sense, why would she... anyways. but yes, dandelion is a character that serves to be there for geralt, so it makes sense for him to tell geralt about cintra because then geralt can respond and thus demonstrate to the readers/audience all of the emotions about it that he is feeling.

but yeah so to summarize, my thoughts are that ciri really comes off as a weaker character in the netflix series than in the books because:

they treated her as older and introduced her as the lion cub of cintra and not as just some child found in the woods, taking BOTH the “child” and “surprise” out of “child surprise”

they removed geralt’s paternal relationship to her and why exactly he is significant in her story, and hyped up the “destiny” thing instead, which came off as completely meaningless, not to mention annoying to hear repeated when there has been no significance developed behind the word. i mean, they cut out both brokilon and something more (i will NOT accept that scene as the ending scene of something more. that wasn’t a hug fit to pick your kid up from afterschool, much less a hug that you run towards your kid with when you thought they perished and you were responsible for it, when you risked your life just to maybe be able to see them again. there was also no dialogue, no “geralt, you’ve found me! after all this time! i knew it! i’m your destiny! say it, i’m your destiny? am i your destiny?” “you’re much more than that, ciri. much more.” so that sucked).

they chose an older actress for ciri, likely to evade having to respect their actors by working within the confines of child labor laws, but not only this, they treated her older in the narrative and made the viewer empathize with her instead of with geralt, the parent... ciri only is supposed to become a “relatable” character when she reaches 13 or 14, in blood of elves and in time of contempt.

they reduced the significance of how deep her trauma was from the massacre of cintra (she makes one offhand comment about how cahir had a bird on his head... that’s not gonna cut it for me. she’s so far experienced a total of zero nightmares about the black knight of cintra).

they gave her a bunch of filler scenes that had absolutely no impact on the broad story or her character development or relationships with other characters (doppler plot). they also made her arc surround unlearning being a princess and finding what epic powers she might have, and nothing comes from both of these points. she doesn’t develop any character because of these points, they’re just there for more filler.

a tad unrelated but: they made yennefer’s wanting a child more of an obsession than a goal the character just happens to have, and have sexualized her character immensely, moreso than in the books... plus the fact that they made her super appealing to the audience and to every other character including geralt from the start (she’s not someone who is icy at first, then warms up), makes me feel like we are never going to get ciri and yennefer at ellander. ever. i just can’t imagine it with this ciri and this yennefer from the netflix series.

[pfenniged]

battenburg cake: cupcake: raspberry religieuse: coffee crumb cake

battenburg cake: what’s your favorite sweet food?

I’m a sucker for anything toffee/butterscotch. I love Mackintosh toffee, or little toffees you chew on. I’m really bad around Nutella or anything chocolate-hazelnut flavoured, as well; I can’t have Nutella in the house unless I’m ‘treating myself,’ because I will literally just eat half a jar with a spoon for lunch. xD I also love to bake generally, but I try to give it away to other people so I can just ‘taste test,’ decorate, and then not ingest thousands of calories. xD Less actual ‘sweet’ things (as in, actual ‘sweets,’ but things that are still technically sweet) I like also include anything matcha flavoured, smoothies, smoothie bowls, and fresh fruit.

cupcake: favorite scene in a movie?

I could never choose a favourite scene in a movie, but the one moment/scene/line I loved recently (that I’ll talk around, in case of spoilers), was from Parasite, where the son says in the middle of his letter, “All you’ll have to do is walk up the stairs.” Ugh, it was so beautiful and played on so many motifs and themes of the film, it literally gave me chills. 

In terms of other film scenes I can think of off the top of my head from favourite movies, I’m a crazy ‘Twelve Angry Men’ fan (It’s one of my favourite movies, even if Henry Fonda’s conduct with the knife technically would have led to a mistrial, but I try to watch it without that niggling in the back of my head now that I’ve been exposed to law xD). I’d probably say how well done the scene is with the bigot juror, and how slowly but surely, everyone turns on him the longer he talks (Even the individuals on the jury who are probably just less slightly less bigoted themselves). How each individual turns when he says certain things, and the longer he keeps his mouth running, saying things like, “You know how THESE people act, they’re all the same, etc.” It’s just a masterpiece in staging and tells you everything you need to know about each character of twelve men in a room, and where they stand on race, ethics, etc. With an ensemble cast, it unless you have a good screenwriter, it can be hard to get you to care and establish each character as a proper character (See what they did with The Hobbit- yikes), and Twelve Angry Men just does it so well; it’s really a film I can watch again and again and every time notice something different or something that I love and appreciate (Just like Parasite, except obviously with Parasite’s conclusion, it’s a lot more haunting and unresolved).

raspberry religieuse: what’s your favorite scent?

My grandmother used to have lavender as a perfume, and I always loved the scent growing up, without even technically making the connection that it was the flower I liked to probably about six or seven. Since then, it’s honestly been one of my favourite scents; before the COVID knocked off, I used to get a Lush body spray with it in it, and essential oil if I wanted to be really fancy, to both help me to sleep and because I enjoy the smell (Plus it makes me feel close to my grandmother, and makes me think when I can wear it, I can be at least one third as classy).

coffee crumb cake: favorite children’s books?

I have a lot, because my family always joke that I singlehandedly was responsible for funding our local library with my overdue fees as a child.

But really, I have a real appreciation for any level of literature, including children’s (Which I’m including young adults, because what the hell): in fact, any time one of my childhood favourites show up at a library book sale (obviously before all of the COVID stuff cracked off), I always buy it and keep it: A good story is a good story, and I think as we grow up, we forget about creativity or relegate it to the sidelines, as well as imagination, for more ‘serious’ things (Which aren’t very serious at all, objectively). So I try to reread some of these when I need to remind myself not to take things too seriously, or have a bit more imagination.

Some off the top of my head: Anything Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, The Witches, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach), anything Tolkien (Especially The Hobbit, if we’re talking younger, around six or so; Lord of the Rings was too ‘boring’ (Read: Convoluted) for a six year old), Harry Potter, of course, and if we’re talking little kid’s books, I had a book about a horse with asthma shaped like a horse which I loved that I got at a breathing centre when I was tested for severe asthma (Which I literally want to buy for old time’s sake, but literally cannot find ANYWHERE, even online). 

I think some of the others I liked were just ‘classics’: Charlotte’s Web, Dr. Seuss, Winnie the Pooh. 

Some split into general themes for you:

Canadian Kid’s Literature:

Dear Canada Diary Series

THERE WERE MONKEYS IN MY KITCHEN (LITERALLY THE ONE BOOK I MADE MY PARENTS READ AGAIN AND AGAIN AND CAN RECITE TO THIS DAY: READ IT)

The Wonderful World of Jillian Jiggs (’JILLIAN- JILLIAN JILLIAN JIGGS, IT LOOKS LIKE YOUR ROOM HAS BEEN LIVED IN BY PIGS!”)

The Hockey Sweater

Any book by Robert Munsch (Stephanie’s Ponytail, Alligator Baby, Thomas’ Snowsuit, The Paperbag Princess, Murmle, Murmle, Purple, Green, and Yellow, Love You Forever; I literally love and will always love anything by Robert Munsch

The Balloon Tree (Need to reread this one too, because I loved it so much and just saw it when I looked it up)

Children's Books I read in French (And you should too if you want to practice your baby French) because I went to French school:

Harry Potter/ A Series of Unfortunate Events (Already know the story, makes following it in another language far more tolerable)

Babar (Originally French; they also used to have Babar cartoons on the French channel here in Canada)

Tintin (See above; my brother is obsessed and went to the Tintin museum in Belgium on a business trip)

Madeline (Obvious)

The Little Prince (Obvious)

Younger Kids:

The Wayside School Series

Stellaluna

Anything by Shel Silverstein

Any of the Paddington stories

Pippi Longstocking

Peter Rabbit (I still have a cup from when I was a baby with the Peter Rabbit characters on them; my mom’s family is from the U.K., so there was a lot of exposure to British characters growing up).

Clifford the Big Red Dog

Nancy Drew

Treehouse Mysteries

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

The Rainbow Fish

‘Young Adult’:

Holes 

The Outsiders

The Giver

The Golden Compass

Anne Frank: Diary of A Young Girl

Little House on the Prairie

The Wizard of Oz

Lord of the Flies

The Chocolate War (I LOVED THE CHOCOLATE WAR AND I NEED TO REREAD IT

A Series of Unfortunate Events

The Princess Bride

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Number the Stars

Frindle

The Thief Lord

Anyhow, this literally took me like, an hour and a half to write out, but I’m happy I did it because now I have all my favourite children’s books in the same place